Howell Woltz is an American author living in Warsaw, Poland, whose work focuses on America's system of justice and the negative effects of Progressivism on free nations and their people.

In 1983, I read the first edition of The Media Monopoly by famous Washington Post journalist Ben Bagdikan. In it, he warned of the dire consequences of having just 50 media corporations controlling the content of public information and news in America.

A highly consolidated press was of course, more easily controlled by government—or by those who control those who govern—and as a result of this consolidation, I believe, the United States fell from Number 1 in freedom of the press, to 29th place under Republican President, George Walker Bush, according to Reporters Without Borders, then sky-dived to 49th place under the presidency of Soros-funded progressive, Barack Hussein Obama.

During those same years, America also plummeted from Number 1 in freedom under its own Freedom House Index, to 43rd place behind many nations which Americans once called tyrannical and fascist.

Fast forward 35 years from Bagdikian’s warning to 2018, and now over 80% of the world’s information is controlled by just five corporations—Time Warner, The Disney Company, Viacom, News Corporation (Australia), and Bertelsmann (Germany).

Add CBS and General Electric into the mix, and media watchdog groups such as The Waking Times project that 90% of all American media is controlled by just six corporate giants.

More dangerous for our world, however, is the fact that the five companies controlling the majority of global news are so intertwined that they act more as a conglomerate than independent corporations.

They share cable systems, satellite channels, and even recording companies with a total of 141 joint ventures. These are business partners, not competitors.

It only stands to reason that this number was intentionally reduced down to just six in order to eliminate diverse opinions and more easily control content— as well as who is heard (and who is not).

Why else would Jeff Bezos, the richest man in America, want to buy the money-losing Washington Post to add to his Amazon empire? Because that money-losing newspaper whispers into every ear of power every morning of the year, in the capital of America, each day.

Geoff Bezos: Saves Big on Haircuts, Spends Big on Newspapers.

Since Bezos bought this money-pit, revenues have dropped from $580 million to approximately $350 million and a former Post executive has confirmed that Bezos demanded operating cost reductions of 50% over the next three years.

It doesn’t cost as much to tell people what to think, as it does to report what happened.

And speaking of what happened, where were the world’s regulators who were intended to prevent such consolidations? Are they also so controlled by the Progressive ideology of Elitism that they will no longer do their jobs?

How have they allowed just five mega corporations to rule the globe, and what happened to the leaders of these nations? Are they also so compromised by billions of dollars from Progressives like George Soros and Jeff Bezos’ that they told their Competition Czars to just keep mum and let it happen?

This is a very likely scenario, given the fact that George Soros has pledged $18 billion—yes, $18 billion—to groups working to bring down President Trump, so how much is he spending to get pliable leaders in smaller nations into positions of power?

In what world, other than the Progressive one, can any of this be considered good, especially in the matter of giving control of the world’s information, which is arguably, the most important of all to free people to a handful of Elites? I think the question answers itself.

In America, the media giants such as CBS, MSNBC, CNN, ABC (with the possible exception of Australian-owned Fox News) seem to get the same sheet of opinions and talking points each day, as they all say exactly the same thing.

It is rarely the ‘news’ that is heard, it is Progressive talking points handed down to the masses about what they must think about the news—in terms that indicate a disdain for any other opinion as uninformed or just plain stupid.

Fox News breaks ranks - sometimes.

Bagdikian was a journalist himself at the now Amazon-owned Washington Post and his warning came as he witnessed the devouring and absorption of thousands of such independent information outlets into the bellies of this small handful of corporate beasts, which had no interest in the locals they served, but bought up every printing press they could, whether for books, magazines or news, as well as the media distributors and film studios to control which books and stories were allowed access to market.

It is difficult to understand why they would do this, other than in the context of a desire to control public thought—as many of the companies purchased were losing serious money.

And the fact that this intertwined monolith does not just control the ‘news’ but almost all means of promoting any idea or concept to the public, via books, newspapers, magazines; as well as radio, television, movies and cable, makes it truly disturbing.

As a survivor of the Armenian genocide in his native Turkey, Bagdikian wrote that democracy—and ultimately, freedom itself—depended on an informed public exchange of ideas, unfettered and unrestrained by ideological suppression or monopolistic interests.

Cause for further alarm than just Bagdikian’s worry about the single-digit number of corporations controlling the world's news content, however, is the fact that just 15 of the world’s wealthiest men and women—and all but one of them is a publicly self-proclaimed ‘progressive’—control this consolidated monopoly of information, which takes it from ‘disturbing’ to frightening—and acts to confirm that it was no accident.

Bloomberg

Adelson

Zuckerman

Buffett

And even worse, these extraordinarily wealthy Elites from around the globe not only share ideology, they share management.

A study published by Columbia Journalism Review, as cited in Bagdikian’s final printing (2016), revealed that News Corporation, Disney, Time Warner, and Viacom have 45 interlocking directors—forty-five—meaning in essence, that the same people oversee the management of the four U.S. branches of the world’s media monopoly, as well as that of the planet.

Convinced that conservative forces were behind this takeover of the world’s information sources back in 1983, Bagdikian called, unsuccessfully, for the U.S. Department of Justice to enforce the monopoly laws against these giants until the day he died.

No administration from that of conservative Ronald Reagan to liberal Barack Obama had the courage (or nihilistic tendencies) to take on the media monopoly and break it up, though it was clearly even then in violation of existing ant-trust and competition laws of mostnations claiming to have a free or independent press.

Perhaps now we have some champions, including President Donald Trump, coming on the world’s stage with the courage to do something about it, but they will need Regulators that will follow the law rather than the billionaires funding its destruction.

WE ARE NOW IN THE END GAME

In summary, information sources have been intentionally consolidated by a small group of extremely wealthy individuals with a view towards hegemony and control of content rather than competition, as evidenced by their shared management and resources.

You are not asked to sit on your competition’s board of directors or know his or her inside operations if you are truly a competitor, and you certainly do not share resources.

Clearly, the plan was to end competition, not just increase market share. Bagdikian’s warnings were prescient. It was Orwell writ large, on an unimaginable scale. It was Sir Cecil Rhodes’ plan of benevolent Elites ruling the world in its endgame.

Today, this globalist media cartel ultimately decides who is heard—and more importantly—who is not heard, in almost every nation around our planet.

Should any entrant successfully run the gauntlet and become a meaningful bit player—such as Ted Turner did in his day, or more recently, Arianna Huffington—he, she (or it) will be quickly snapped up by the media monolith—and until President Trump waded into the mix a few weeks ago, holding up AT&T’s merger with Time-Warner, the consolidation game has gone unhindered for two generations.

While the progressive politicians and their mainstream media puppets foam at the mouth over Trump’s actions, he is quietly doing the right thing for our world.

So welcome to the new world, which is becoming more and more like the old one. A handful of magnates, potentates and Elites controlling the minds and actions of the serfs and masses—which was their stated plan.

THE ANSWER

Western nations need to enforce existing laws. There is no need for study groups in Congresses and Parliaments, and certainly no need to bring in progressive fronts such as the United Nations who will only act to delay real action.

There is no need for committees, hearings, or anything that might allow a moment of delay. Anti-trust and monopoly statutes date back to 1890 in the United States (The Sherman Anti-trust Act) and exist in most free nations as “competition laws,” so governments already have the tools they need—they’re just rusty.

The Attorney General of the United States and his or her law enforcement equivalents around the world should immediately move to break up these giants by eliminating ownership of multiple means of communication by any one company or individual in any single market or across the spectrum of publishing, radio, film and visual.

A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY?

There is one man alive today who is more reviled by the media monopoly than any other person in its history. This man’s name is Donald Trump, the President of the United States of America, which tells me that he must be doing something right.

The fact that Mr. Trump became President of the United States in spite of the global cabal’s maneuverings against him, indicates that a brief window of opportunity may exist to end this small Elite group’s domination of the world’s sources of information.

I make the statement that President Trump is the most reviled person in media monopoly history boldly, because of the sad history of Bertelsmann, the European branch of the media monopoly, who willingly served Adolf Hitler’s regime. The company printed 19 million books under Adolf Hitler’s horrifying rule and thrived through large contracts to print anti-Semitic literature for his Nazi Propaganda Ministry.

Bertelsmann’s history would further suggest that the ‘progressive’ fathers of today’s media monopoly may have had some measure of participation in putting Hitler in power (at best) and willingly helped (at worst).

Even if Bertelsmann was not instrumental in bringing Hitler to power, the company cannot dispute it made money off his cruel regime until it was ripped out by the Allies.

Whether one hates President Donald Trump or loves him is irrelevant. He is the only American leader in a century who has nothing to lose by ordering his Attorney General to bring the media monopoly back to rule of law.

In doing so, he might also reintroduce the idea of compétition, previously required of all businesses operating within the law, and hopefully, start breaking up the Amazons, Googles, and so on, as well.

Some nations in Europe, such as Poland, Hungary, and The Czech Republic, are electing parties and leaders unwilling to be forced into hegemony, and as Brexit, Scotland, Catalonia and other independence seeking nations and regions are proving, the game may be changing quickly.

Rumblings of independence and free thought are also advancing in Austria, Italy, Sweden, and even in Germany, so there is reason to be hopeful.

President Trump and his allies must press their respective Departments of Justice to break up this handful of market monopolists; just as telephone monopoly, AT&T, was broken up by the U.S. Department of Justice in 1982.

Using today’s example, rather than allowing Time Warner to merge with AT&T as was recently proposed, the media conglomerate should be dissembled into regional corporations and further divided so as not to have cross-media control in any single market.

If any megacorp is allowed to completely control who and what is published or seen in every outlet of a single market—what books are published and distributed, which journalists can print, and which stories are made into movies—then that company, in essence, is the equivalent of a propaganda machine which was, in my opinion, their goal.

How about The Disney Company? What do we do with Mickey Mouse’s propaganda machine? Well—lots of little mice could not control the minds of young people like the giant mouse tries to do today, and so on. Bust them all up and never let them coagulate again.

A typical American family in a typical Disney sitcom.

Our nation and the world could then get back to local news and local sources, reported by people who actually live in these areas and care about what happens there. Real reporting would quickly be revived across a realm of regions and venues.

Most importantly, that news would emanate from a wide variety of viewpoints rather than just one shrill voice—a voice that is ultimately controlled by 15 of the richest men and women in the world, sending the same dangerous message of ‘progressivism,’— the greatest misnomer in history. It took mankind millennia to rise up and free themselves from Elites and tyrants. Going back to serfdom under a class of Elites—the stated goal of Progressivism’s founders—is about as regressive as it gets.

It would be an ironic justice if President Donald Trump’s legacy was bringing down the monopolistic forces which tried so desperately to destroy him, would it not?

If he could now develop allies around the world who will follow his lead, dispense with their fear of the progressives and their press, and liberate free thought once more from the inevitable restraint inherent in monopolies anywhere—a better, freer world is sure to emerge on the other side.

Howell W. Woltz

May 23, 2018

howell@justicerestored.com

Howell Woltz is an American author living in Warsaw, Poland. His work focuses on America’s system of justice--which has now imprisoned more people than any in human history-- and the negative effects of Progressivism on free nations and people. His international bestseller, Justice Restored: 10 steps to end mass incarceration in America (2017), is presently being used by members of the Trump Administration as a guide for reform at the national level, while Howell's latest book--Gu?ag Ameryka (2018), recently published in Europe-- is informing the world about the American Gulag, which is now larger than the Soviet Union’s ever became, and is reminiscent of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s work in the 1970s.

I don't know about anyone else but I find a lot of truth in what Mr. Woltz has said here.

I just didn't realise how far back these so called progressives started this push.

I hope I am wrong, but I still don't think Trump has any real hope of draining the putrid swamp.

Posted by: Bill Jun 11 2018, 03:05 PM

It's been a while since we've heard from the influential Larry Pickering scepo. I can't begin to tell you how much I've missed him, but I had to don my tin foil hat to get through his copy/paste of this one. At least you posted it in the appropriate section - FAKE NEWS.

Nothing in the NewsCorpse tabloids that grabs your attention mate ? Never mind. They'll be full of it tomorrow when they relaunch the "Kill Bill" tirade after Curly's appearance on QandA tonight.

Robert De Niro's critique of Trump was more accurate and it only contained two words.

Posted by: scepo Jun 11 2018, 04:20 PM

You are a funny man Bill.

I do not subscribe to Rupert or anyone elses rags. Just as I do not belong to or donate to any political party or independent pollies.

You once told us how to get around Ruperts paywall. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Tin foil hat eh?

Well you can keep defending the elite swamp dwellers Bill. But it has been obvious for a long time now that they couldn't care one bit about the likes of you and me.

Posted by: Bill Jun 11 2018, 04:33 PM

Now that he's 'paywalled' all of the regional dailies, there are less opportunities to read the articles, but I think news.com still works (copy text from article to google and look for the news.com link in the search results), and some of his op-ed writers are appearing on Stokes publications in WA. That's why Charles can post Paul Murrays articles among others scepo.

Posted by: lee Jun 11 2018, 04:42 PM

QUOTE

That's why Charles can post Paul Murrays articles among others scepo.

Two different Paul Murray's.

"Paul Murray is a former working journalist and later editor of The West Australian newspaper who resigned and was later retained to write opinion articles for the same newspaper. Murray was the longest serving newspaper editor in Australia when he resigned in February 2000."

"Paul Murray is a conservative radio and TV broadcaster based in Sydney, Australia. He was the former regular Mornings presenter on 2UE show "A Sydney Morning". He also hosts Paul Murray Live on Sky News Australia which airs Sunday to Thursday at 9pm AEST"

Posted by: Charles Jun 11 2018, 05:04 PM

Thanks Lee. I was going to post something similar.

Posted by: Bear Jun 11 2018, 07:17 PM

An interesting article Scepo, thanks for posting it.

I will highlight only a couple of sentences which sum up my thoughts on the so-called 'progressives' who continue to turn the World upside down as they drag it into hell.

This is a very likely scenario, given the fact that George Soros has pledged $18 billion—yes, $18 billion—to groups working to bring down President Trump, so how much is he spending to get pliable leaders in smaller nations into positions of power?

In what world, other than the Progressive one, can any of this be considered good, especially in the matter of giving control of the world’s information, which is arguably, the most important of all to free people to a handful of Elites? I think the question answers itself.

It is rarely the ‘news’ that is heard, it is Progressive talking points handed down to the masses about what they must think about the news—in terms that indicate a disdain for any other opinion as uninformed or just plain stupid.

Posted by: Flin Jun 12 2018, 07:40 AM

I really appreciate Scopo's effort in posting such a large article including photos. It takes a lot of time.Well done mate.

Posted by: scepo Jun 12 2018, 02:13 PM

Just because this article came from Pickerings site does not automatically make it fake news. I have as much faith in Pickering as you have in your precious Guardian Bill. With Pickering you just have to ignore the colourful language and realise when he is exaggerating. That may be a bit difficult for some. But at any rate this article was not written by Pickering.

I posted it under fake news because it points out just how much (almost all) of our news from the msm is fake these days.

QUOTE

Robert De Niro's critique of Trump was more accurate and it only contained two words.

Yes and those two words were "***** Trump". (The sites automatic naughty word eraser has replaced the four letter F word with five stars here).

A very intelligent comment from Mr De Niro I am sure. I guess it is what to expect from a progressive actor. I am sure he has much more political knowledge and expertise in general than Howell Woltz.

Posted by: Bear Jun 13 2018, 07:07 AM

De Niro's little squeal was no more than a 'call to arms' - similar to anything else you see from the far left movement, De Niro is probably a feminist.